The sale was announced in the newspaper's Friday edition. Terms were not disclosed.

Louis P. "Pat" Cashman III, great-grandson of John Gordon Cashman, who founded the newspaper in 1883, said the sale was completed Thursday.

Cashman and his family sold to Vicksburg Newsmedia, LLC, an affiliate of Boone Newspapers Inc. which has offices in Natchez and Tuscaloosa, Ala. Boone owns and manages 45 newspapers, 26 community magazines, related shopping guides and websites in similar-sized communities in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Minnesota, Ohio and Michigan.

Boone owns The Natchez Democrat and The Brookhaven Daily Leader in Mississippi.

A Justice Department civil rights investigation has concluded that the Ferguson Police Department and the city's municipal court engaged in a "pattern and practice" of discrimination against African-Americans, according to a U.S. law enforcement official.